You know that feeling when you’re famished and you spot a bowl of juicy fruits, which you hurriedly bite into, just to realise it is all plastic? The Greatest Showman brings you the same disappointment within the first 30 minutes. For a musical that aims to be grand and touching, what ultimately stands out is its artificiality. The sets look like they are made to raise funds for a school dance, the acrobatics are heavily infused with CGI, and the singing is as auto-tuned as Justin Bieber’s performance in Mumbai.
Although the film is based on the life of P.T. Barnum, the showman who enthralled America, it is by no means a biographical motion picture. It aims be a dreamy and inspiring rags to riches story and then a lesson in what greed can do. But in the pursuit of being a saccharine and preachy fairy tale, what works for the film is the empowerment of characters on the fringes, who make their presence felt through excessive foot stomping and powerfully loud vocals. There’s a lady with beard, a man covered with tattoos, the shortest man on earth, and in the same league – people of colour. But that’s America in the 1800s for you.
- Director: Michael Gracey
- Cast: Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson and Zendaya
- Story line: The rise and fall of American entertainer P.T. Barnum
Barnum empowers these “freaks” for business purposes and then sidelines them as he moves on to appease the high brow audiences, only to understand the importance of loyalty later. The film explores, very superficially, the distinction between high and low brow art, but misses out on discussing the apparent bowdlerisation that takes place in the process. Perhaps that’s expecting too much from an auto-tuned musical.
The Greatest Showman provides ample ground for Hugh Jackman to let himself loose, unlike his serious self in the 2012 Academy Award nominated musical, Les Misérables . The sincerity in his acting, dancing and singing is fairly evident, but unfortunately, so is the effort. With several musicals on his résumé, you would expect Zac Efron to be at his charming best as a good-willed, privileged business partner. But beyond his deep blue eyes, there’s very little the actor has to offer in his musical comeback.
Alongside being a savvy and passionate businessman and an entertainer, PT Barnum was also a conman. The fattest man on earth wasn’t the fattest, the oldest lady wasn’t the oldest, but who cared as long as he convincingly sold it you. If only the film was as entrepreneurial as him, it would successfully take us into a make-believe world, despite not being the greatest.
